Obtaining useful data from images of biochemical experiments requires high spatial resolution, accuracy, and speed. Such images typically need to be obtained at high enough magnification for individual experiments to be clearly resolved. At the same time, the images need to cover a large enough field of view for experiments to be correctly identified. For large-scale studies, the imaging and image processing must take place quickly enough in order to be commercially feasible.
Step-and-repeat imagers and time-delay integration (TDI) imagers are two broad types of imaging systems that can be used to image biochemical experiments. Step-and-repeat systems can acquire about 10 megapixels of image data per second with about 5 μm alignment accuracy. TDI systems can acquire about 30 megapixels of image data per second with about 50 nm alignment accuracy. While for some applications these two types of systems may perform reasonably well, for other applications they suffer from some structural and functional disadvantages that adversely affect overall throughput. For example, applications involving large-scale biochemical experiment studies (e.g., such as massively parallel whole genome sequencing) typically require overall throughput that is higher than what step-and-repeat and TDI imaging systems can currently deliver.
What is needed is a scanning imaging system that is able to capture rapidly a large amount of detailed data.